Bird

"Bird is a coming-of-age film in which English director Andrea Arnold (Fish Tank) maintains social realism as her core, but adds necessary touches of magical realism to turn it into a fable about the experience of transitioning from girlhood to adulthood in a working-class neighborhood in England. The story follows Bailey (the spectacular debutante Nykiya Adams), a 12-year-old girl trapped between a neglectful home and a violent environment, whose life takes a turn when she meets the mysterious Bird (Franz Rogowski), a young man searching for his biological family, whom she decides to help. Arnold offers a realistic, empathetic, and never exploitative view of a complex social reality for a young woman, but the story she tells is filled with compassion and beautiful symbolism that also evokes hope for finding alternative paths. Read more in the full review."